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For Fair Elections, Only One Option (4 Letters)

Those of us "Shopping for the Tools of Democracy" didn't find much to buy in your April 9 article.

The most basic tool of democracy is our vote, fairly counted. The electronic voting machines prominently pictured in five photographs will not fairly count our votes. There wasn't a single photograph of the time-tested option: a voter sitting quietly at a table, marking a ballot by hand.

Other states are abandoning electronic voting machines because of unreliability and suspicious results. On March 2, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico urged all state governors to join him in adopting paper ballots as "the best system to secure our election process." He wrote, "As anyone who uses one can attest, computers break down, get viruses, lose information, and corrupt data."

To ensure that all our votes are counted as cast, our county election commissioners must choose paper ballots counted on precinct-based optical scanners to replace our lever machines.

Allegra DenglerDobbs Ferry

Finding a Place for Day Laborers

To the Editor:

Re "The Mamaroneck Crackdown" (editorial, April 9):

Putting a day laborer site in front of the sewage plant on Boston Post Road in Mamaroneck would have been silly. The location is adjacent to the second-busiest traffic light in the area where the lanes narrow to take multiple turn options into account. Traffic problems make it unworkable. Columbus Park was, and remains, a good location for the site.

The actions of the Mamaroneck board of trustees do appear hamhanded and parochial. On the other hand, the Village of Mamaroneck has always been treated as the "poor sister" of the Larchmont-Rye-Mamaroneck family. The City of Rye has an excellent potential site under Route 95 steps from the train station, but "too near" an exclusive private school. Likewise Larchmont could place several sites within 250 yards of its own train station, but has not stepped up.

Day laborers provide a valuable service, but large groups of adult men congregating near residential neighborhoods affect the residents' perceptions of personal safety for themselves and their children. That is as bad for the environment as increased traffic. One way of dealing with the problem would be to increase the number of hiring sites to reduce the number of laborers gathering in one place. If our adjacent towns help confront the issue, a true regional solution might be obtained.

Kenneth JacobsMamaroneck

Public Safety and Dangerous Dogs

To the Editor:

Re "Buster's Law" (editorial, April 2):

In an attempt to clarify why this county is establishing a "dangerous dog" Web site, I ordered the stats on dog bites from the Westchester Department of Health. I expected to see a burgeoning explosion; instead, it showed the numbers are decreasing. So why do we need a registry?

You state that "dogs Â as their owners will surely remind us Â have due process rights." Oh, really? I often equate the legal problems of animals with the problems facing victimized children. What makes you think the judicial system will work better for dogs, who are also among the most vulnerable in our society?

You also state, "As long as there are nasty dogs among us, and negligent owners willing to shield them, the public should have abundant means to protect itself." In my vast experience, "nasty" dogs are caused by owners or guardians who turned a loving animal vicious. Precious few are born that way. Your view would almost guarantee the dog a bad day in court.

A public registry will serve only to cause dogs to be dumped in shelters, enrich the insurance companies and create a bonanza for breeders of teacup poodles.

I just picked my son up after school the other day and was pleased with the experience.

The W. L. Morse School in Sleepy Hollow is in an urban area with little room for traffic. The school has come up with a very workable traffic management plan using the staff and well-placed traffic cones to ease the flow.